GIZ and Lindex Sign MoU on Kick off- Women’s Empowerment

GIZ and Lindex Sign MoU on Kick off- Women’s Empowerment. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Lindex co-facilitated a ‘Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Signing Ceremony’ on 21 November 2017 in Dhaka, to start a pilot phase of a project. GIZ works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh.

Lindex and its suppliers’ factories signed this MoU for including gender policy in the mainstream work force, gender issues in human resources and management systems of the ten pilot factories in the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh.

The project named ‘A New Business Driven Approach to Women’s Empowerment in the Ready-Made Garment Industry’ works to institutionalise women’s empowerment in the RMG industry. This project is implemented by GIZ in cooperation with Lindex. Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and Network for Research and Training (NRT) joined hands to implement this project.

The purpose of this event was to introduce pilot factories and inform them about the project’s objective, ‘To empower female workers through mainstreaming of gender issues in the Human Resource Management Systems of the factories in the RMG industry of Bangladesh’.

Werner Lange, Cluster Coordinator, GIZ, addressed in his welcome speech that “The driving force of RMG industry is female workers, who make a living and support their workplaces, families and communities alike.

All stakeholders, especially the private enterprises need to rethink on how to empower these female workers and make business cases, so that they can make even more significant contributions to their workplaces as well as enhance their own lives.”

Anna-Karin Dahlberg, Corporate Sustainable Manager, Lindex, emphasised that Lindex has an ambitious goal to empower female workers in its supply chain by building inclusive workplaces. She highlighted the importance of collaboration, commitment for empowerment and equal opportunities for female workers.

In order to encourage its wider uptake and achieve the necessary mainstreaming effect, Lindex and GIZ will present the results of the pilot measure to the government and to other industry players.

As a provider of international cooperation services for sustainable development and international education work, we are dedicated to building a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe, with the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector and governments of other countries all benefiting from our services. We work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is our main commissioning party.

All these commissioning parties and cooperation partners place their trust in GIZ by working together with us to generate ideas for political, social and economic change, develop these into concrete plans and implement the envisaged change processes. As a public-benefit federal enterprise, German and European values are central to our work. We are committed to meeting our clients’ high standards with regard to transparency and accountability. This makes us a reliable service provider that people can trust. Together with our partners, we work to deliver flexible, effective and cost-effective solutions that offer people better prospects and sustainably improve their living conditions.

The registered offices of GIZ are in Bonn and Eschborn. In 2016 our business volume was around EUR 2.4 billion. Of our 18,260 employees in some 120 countries, almost 70 per cent are national personnel working in the field. In our capacity as a recognized sending organisation, we currently have 643 development workers in action in partner countries. In addition, the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM), a joint operation of GIZ and the Federal Employment Agency, placed 847 integrated and returning experts with local employers abroad in 2016 while providing them with financial support and advisory services.